Evaluation Report Publications of the Academy of Finland 1/11

Research quality
The research is of a very high quality and the unit is part of a Centre of Excellence (in 
Functional Materials). The strong research impact is evidenced by the external 
funding, which is at a very good level, especially from Tekes and industry. Results 
have been published in good but specialised journals, with reasonable to high impact. 
However, the international visibility of the unit could be better, since the number of 
citations is quite low.
Research environment
The research environment is excellent. The essential equipment for polymer 
chemistry is available in-house. The facilities, including a 300 MHz NMR, light 
scattering, fluorescence spectrometer, scanning calorimeters, dynamic mechanical 
analysis (DMA) and a rheometer, are suitable although some instruments are quite 
old. Special instrumentation, such as atomic force microscope (AFM), MS, field-
emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), and ZetaSizer, is shared with other 
groups. A new 500 MHz NMR spectrometer was installed very recently. There is 
good collaboration between the groups in the Department, and the PhD students can 
share various instruments. The planned renovation of the Department will increase 
the safety and working conditions in the labs.